TikTok races to number one spot on Google Play Store and Apple App Store

After a to-and-fro battle with the Madras High Court last month, popular video sharing app TikTok has made its way back to the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Not only that, but in a span of two weeks after the ban lifted, the app is now again holding the number 1 spot on both the app stores.

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One reason why the app has catapulted to the top in such a short time is TikTok’s recent social media campaign. TikTok said that it would reward a luck winner with Rs 1 lakh if they to share #ReturnofTikTok hashtag on social media.

“We would like to express our deepest gratitude and thank our over 200 million users in India for the overwhelming response, support and love they have shown towards TikTok,” Sumedhas Rajgopal, Entertainment Strategy and Partnerships Lead, TikTok (India), said in a statement.

The Madras HC on 3 April directed the Centre to ban the app TikTok, used to create and share short videos, as it voiced concern over “pornographic and inappropriate content” being made available through such platforms.

Hearing a plea by the Chinese company ByteDance, which owns TikTok, challenging the ban, the Supreme Court refused to stay the Madras HC order but asked ByteDance to raise its grievances before the high court.

A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna on Monday directed the high court to decide the plea for vacating its ban order.

TikTok had a record 41.7 mn app downloads in Q1 2019 and has 119.3 million active users in India before a ban was placed removing the app from Play Store and Apple App Store.

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